An exhibition at Milan's Palazzo Reale recounts Picasso's complex reality in Paris

From September 20, 2024 until February 2, 2025, Palazzo Reale in Milan presents the exhibition Picasso the Stranger. Fifty years after his death, the work of Pablo Ruiz Picasso (Malaga, 1881 - Mougins, 1973) is investigated through his status as an immigrant, rejected, censored by the nation that saw him grow up and achieve success, France. Promoted by the City of Milan - Culture, the exhibition is the brainchild of Annie Cohen-Solal, author of Picasso. A Foreigner’s Life and scientific curator of the exhibition project. It is produced by Palazzo Reale with Marsilio Arte thanks to the collaboration of the Musée National Picasso-Paris, the Palais de la Porte Dorée with the Musée National de l’Histoire de l’Immigration in Paris, and the Collection Musée Magnelli Musée de la céramique in Vallauris. The exhibition also benefits from the special curatorship of Cécile Debray, president of the MNPP. Picasso the Stranger presents more than 90 works by the artist, including documents, photographs, letters, and videos, mainly from the MNPP but also from the Musée National de l’Histoire de l’Immigration and the Collection Musée Magnelli Musée de la céramique in Vallauris. Pablo Picasso, born in 1881 in Malaga, Spain, settled in Paris in 1904.

Although France became his home, the artist would never obtain French citizenship.The exhibition follows Picasso’s aesthetic and political trajectory to illustrate how he shaped his identity while living in the difficult condition of an immigrant. In 1901 he was mistakenly registered as an anarchist under special surveillance before settling permanently in Paris in 1904, where he would establish himself as a leader of theCubist avant-garde. Then dates back to 1929 the Louvre’s grand refusal of the donation of Les Demoiselles d’Avignon painted between 1906 and 1907.During the civil war in Spain, in 1937 the artist made Guernica, the canvas destined to become the universal banner of anti-fascist resistance. In 1940, fearing danger in France where a Nazi invasion was imminent, Picasso decided to apply for naturalization, which was refused. In 1955, when Picasso left Paris to settle in the south of France, he chose to work with local artisans: he thus decided to immerse himself in the Mediterranean world.

The exhibition runs in chronological order, from 1900 to 1973, and the selected works bear witness to Picasso’s troubled condition in France, an experience that radically influenced his artistic practice. In the painting La Lecture de la lettre dating from 1921, for example, Picasso depicts himself next to a friend, who could be the poet Guillaume Apollinaire or the poet Max Jacob, or Georges Braque: but what emerges is the importance the artist attached to the bonds and friendships he built over the years. Among the more than forty works on display for the first time in Italy is a small gouache Groupe de femmes from 1901: the artist in his first months in Paris executed works that confront the viewer with disconcerting characters, portrayed in violent colors, with broad touches of red that stand out like wounds. It is the little people of Paris observed in the slums of the city, in the cafes and alleys of Montmartre, along with the welcoming group of Catalans of which Picasso is also a member. Accompanying the exhibition is the catalog, published by Marsilio Arte, which opens with an introductory section collecting institutional and curatorial interventions, as well as a text signed by writer Niccolò Ammaniti. The volume reveals the situation of the foreign Picasso in France and the reception of his work by French institutions.

At Palazzo Te in Mantua, the exhibition Picasso at Palazzo Te is already open until January 6, 2025 . Poetry and Salvation, in Dialogue with Giulio Romano’s Frescoes, which presents about 50 works by the iconic 20th-century master, including drawings, documents, sculptures and paintings, some exceptionally exhibited in Italy for the first time. Both projects arise from a collaboration with the MNNP and are curated by Annie Cohen-Solal. With the exhibition ticket in Milan, visitors will be able to access the exhibition in Mantua with a reduced ticket and vice versa.

“The exhibition Picasso the Stranger represents an extraordinary opportunity to reflect not only on the work of one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, but also on the historical and social dynamics that influenced his life and creative path. Milan, with its tradition of cultural welcome and openness, once again confirms itself as an international center where art becomes a tool for dialogue and inclusion. The innovative approach of this exhibition invites us to rediscover Picasso in a new light, that of the man, as well as the artist, marked by the experience of being a foreigner,” says Tommaso Sacchi, Councillor for Culture of the City of Milan.

“Looked upon with suspicion as a foreigner, a man of the left, an avant-garde artist, Picasso juggles with skill and political acumen in a country that rests on two major institutions: the police des étrangers and the Académie des beaux-arts, which obsessively protect the ’purity of the nation’ and ’good French taste,’” says Annie Cohen-Solal. “The image of a vulnerable and precarious Picasso constantly appears in my research because he knew he could be expelled at any moment. However, he knew how to navigate as a great strategist against widespread xenophobia.”

“The exhibition opens a new perspective in understanding Picasso’s art, investigating how his status as a ”foreigner“ in France influenced and shaped his artistic identity. Also considered a ”foreigner“ for breaking certain typically bourgeois patterns of aesthetic judgment. Despite the criticism of traditionalists, and perhaps precisely because of this, Picasso was free, indecipherable, uncontrollable, cosmopolitan, uninhibited in the management of his working relationships and uninhibited in his private life, in his art he reshaped the aesthetic canons of reference, through the decomposition of volumes he traced new daring and unrepeatable paths,” says Vittorio Verdone, Director of Communication and Media Relations Unipol Gruppo. And with the support of BPER Banca, sponsor. Serena Morgagni, Head of Communication comments, “By supporting what represents one of the most important artistic initiatives of the season, we confirm our commitment to the promotion and dissemination of art and culture. We wish to offer the community experiences of the highest artistic value considering them as opportunities for inclusion and social growth,” says Unipol Gruppo, main sponsor of the exhibition.

“Marsilio Arte,” says Luca De Michelis, managing director of Marsilio Editori and Marsilio Arte, “is implementing its presence in the city of Milan with a programming shared and built with the City of Milan, of which it is an ongoing partner: Picasso the Stranger is a complex and articulated integrated publishing project with an essay, a catalog and the exhibition that fits into the exhibition scene for its originality of approach and scientific investigation, as well as as as a visitor experience. A different exhibition, necessary because of the themes addressed, which are so topical, and because of the debate that is already arising from it.”

Practical information

Hours: Tuesday through Sunday 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; Thursday 10 a.m. to 10:30 p.m.; closed Monday

Fees:

Full € 15

Reduced € 13

Image: the layout of the exhibition. Photo: Vincenzo Bruno

An exhibition at Milan's Palazzo Reale recounts Picasso's complex reality in Paris

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